The sun was setting as four ponies dug in the shadow of the steep walls of the pit they were in. The landscape around the excavation site was breathtaking: rugged, snow-topped mountains rose from thick, sloped forests. Only a single pony-made line near the horizon broke the harmony of nature; a train, the size of a fly from where the excavation site stood was slowly crawling along the distant rails.
Hard work was something the four earth ponies were certainly used to. None of them was particularly colorful, their coats being hues of brown and grey. Even their manes looked dull and unmaintained. Despite the chilly wind that battered the mountainside, each of them was glistening with sweat, swinging their pickaxes and shovels with a steady pace. Every single one of them was determined to find something important that would make them rich and famous. The pit deepened at a steady pace.
“Yo, guys!” the brown, black-maned stallion shouted to the others. “I’ve hit something, and I think it ain’t rock!”
The other stallion and the two mares all paused their work, surrounding the brown one. “Huh. Looks like you finally were of some use, Rock Smasher,” the dark grey mare commented. “But what is it?”
Smasher swept the loose dirt away with his hoof, revealing a bluish, metallic surface. Some kinds of runes were engraved on it, but their outlines were still partially covered under by the ground.
“Phew. Seems like it continues towards the wall. Must be something big,” the black stallion noted with a hint of excitement in his voice.
“You’re correct, Sunset. A change of plans, everypony!” the grey mare declared. “Take your shovels and picks and start digging the eastern wall out. We need to see where this leads.”
The ponies complied without objections – they were all eager to see the surface in its entirety. Perhaps it was a trapdoor? Or better yet, perhaps the runes contained an unknown spell that they could sell for huge profit?
Darkness eventually fell and so the digging continued under bright spotlights. Normally the group would already have been asleep at this time, but no words of encouragement were needed for them to keep going. After all, this could be their best find to date.
It took a couple of hours for the ponies to fully uncover the surface. It looked like a door, although it clearly was a horizontal platform. Incomprehensible runes and carvings snaked on the outer edges of the smooth, metallic-bluish surface. The ponies took their time to marvel the mysterious structure or plaque they had just uncovered.
“All right,” the grey mare said, breaking the silence. “You may go to your tents now. We’ll take a better look at this thing next morning. It’s certainly not going anywhere, by the looks of it.”
“Sure thing, Dusty,” Sunset replied, dropping his shovel. The others did the same, and proceeded to climb the ladders up and trot to their nearby campsite. Despite the great find, sleep would come easily – the ponies had worked their flanks off that day.
--
“Midnight, how’d you sleep?” Smasher asked from the light grey mare. He saw black rings surrounding her eyes as she stepped out of the tent they had been sharing.
“Well… hate to tell you, but I didn’t catch sleep after a not-so-pleasant dream I had in the early hours of the night,” she replied, nervously glancing around the campsite. The dwarf birches around the tents reminded Midnight of the dream, and she lowered her head.
The brown stallion cleared his throat. “Truth to be told, I didn’t sleep well myself. I dreamt of weird, disturbing landscapes and huge buildings made of precious metals. You’d think it wasn’t a nightmare, but wandering around a city with buildings unimaginably tall isn’t really that comforting.”
“I saw something else entirely, Smasher. I was being chased by something in a forest very much like the one we had to hike through when we came here,” she said, pointing her hoof at the canopy of trees far below them. “I didn’t see it. But I knew it was there, and had to run… but at the same time I knew that there was no escape.”
The stallion gave her a curious look, not wanting to know more. His imagination was already processing the information he’d received, forming theories of ages-old ghosts haunting the rocky mountainside. For the stallion’s relief, Midnight quickly stopped his stream of thoughts.
“Let’s get going, dude. I bet Sunset and Dusty are already at work. Heard them get up almost an hour ago while you were still snoring.”
“Yup,” Smasher replied. The two ponies slowly walked to the edge of the pit, only to find out something they hadn’t anticipated: it was empty. The huge ‘door’ was still there, but Sunset and Dusty were nowhere to be seen. Two bags of digging gear laid on the bottom, hinting that they'd indeed been here already.
“I don’t know about you, Midnight, but this is starting to get mighty creepy. I thought that their tent was empty,” the stallion spoke out with a concerned voice. “Let’s check it out.”
The pair rushed to the tent of the other two, only to find out that both of the sleeping bags inside were open, clearly indicating that the ponies had woken up and gotten to work. The blue canvas of the tent flapped in the wind. The missing two could have been anywhere, and thus the two ponies started calling them by their names, for no avail. They searched around the campsite for almost an hour, finding no trace of their fellows.
“I… I suggest we use the transmitter. Something must have happened to them. We have to contact somepony and tell them about this whole mess,” the mare commented with horrified look on her face.
“Oh come on, Midnight. We haven’t even searched for them yet! You know that the Royals will take away any fame or money we can get from this expedition! Not to even mention that they'll fire us after discovering the other artifacts we've stashed inside our tents!”
“There aren’t any places to hide in!” the mare shouted back, the stress she was in evident from her voice. Sunset pushed the brown stallion to the side and ran to the radio transmitter that idly sat in the shadow of a large boulder. A couple of button clicks later, white noise filled the air.
"This is Midnight Breeze, an archaeologist of the expedition C three. Immediate assistance requested. Two ponies have gone missing, and we have found something that we believe is of a great importance.. Please respond,” the mare reported, her voice quivering with fear..
After a moment, the radio crackled loudly. “Roger. We hear you. Two Royal Guards will be sent to retrieve you and the artifact you have located. What does it look like?”
Midnight was surprised that the stallion hadn’t tried to stop her. “Smasher?” she asked, turning around. He wasn’t there. The mare’s mouth was agape. “Smasher...?”
There was no response. A feeling of horror was starting to fill the mare’s mind. The wind had stopped. The radio was quiet. It was like someone had thrown a blanket around the world, silencing it for good.
“Miss Breeze?” the radio crackled.
“Miss Breeze?”